Oppurtunities
by fezsarecool
Summary: Olivia is walking home one night when she hears a strange sound coming from an alley. (One shot.)


I pushed my way out of the sea of people and inhaled sharply. The bar was hot and humid, and taking a breath of the cool, night air felt good, almost liberating.

I was drunk, but not much. If there was a drunk-scale from one to ten, ten being passed out, one being tripping over a couple of words, then I'd be about a two. I could think clearly for the most part, but ask me to talk and I might start babbling.

I have a low tolerance for alcohol; maybe that's why I almost never go out drinking, and why I'm never invited out. My friends hate that I dislike bars; they're dirty, stuffy, crowded, and not to mention, they smell horrible. I can only spend so long in there before dying to get out.

But this was a "special occasion": my best friend's birthday no less. She asked me to go, practically begged me in fact, and I agreed, but after two hours of drunken shouts and being hit on by strange men, I told her I really had to go. She didn't put up much of a fight, which was surprising. Only nodded before giving me a hug and saying goodbye. I felt bad; this was her day to do whatever she wanted. I should be spending it with her.

I sighed quietly and continued down the main road, back toward my apartment.

It wouldn't have made it much better if I had stayed. I'd just be sitting on a barstool in the corner, sipping at my drink while the rest of my friends took shots and danced with each other. I was never one go out and do crazy, adventurous things. I was always shy, reserved, scared to do anything. I wondered how, even with my boring personality, I still managed to make friends that loved to go out and party all day.

I crossed a few more streets, anxious to get home so I could finally get these four inch stilts off of my feet and watch a movie. I began to hum to myself softly, until eventually the lyrics escaped from my lips.

_"I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too _  
_I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you _  
_I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love." _

_Vwooooorp….vwooooorp….vwoooorp…_

I stopped singing and spun around. There was a bright blue light flashing from the alleyway just a few feet in front of me, accompanied by a loud humming sound, unlike anything I'd ever heard before.

It was dark. It was dangerous. It was stupid, but some strange curiosity made me take a few steps slowly in the direction of the sound; something about it was….almost magnetic. It invited me to find out what it could be and why it was happening.

Suddenly the flashing stopped, as well as the sound. I paused, confused, but peered around the corner to see a big blue box that I knew was not there when I had passed the alley just a few moments prior. I rubbed my eyes, probably ruining the mascara I had on, but it was still there. The words "police public call box" were written at the top, with two doors just below it.

A police box? I remember my grandfather mentioning those, but they haven't been around since maybe the 1960s. What with so many other methods of communication available, they weren't needed much anymore. So…what was it doing here? And that bulb at the top, which I assumed to be the source of the light…why was it flashing?

_I must be more drunk than I gave myself credit for_, I thought. _That box….how did it get there? I'm very sure that it wasn't around when I passed the alley. So am I just imagining it sitting there? _I took another step forward._ Maybe it isn't there. It could be my imagination._ _Unless it's…_ I paused before curling my hand into a fist and knocking on the deep blue wood. _Solid…this is real. So if this is real then-_

The door burst open. I shrieked at the sudden, unexpected action and instinctively stepped out of the way.

A man poked his head out of the box. Even in the darkness of the alley, I could make out what he looked like; tall, with spiky brown hair and light brown eyes, dressed in a blue, pinstriped suit and a brown overcoat. But his shoes, red converse, didn't match with the outfit at all. He was young; maybe late twenties or early thirties. He moved with a sudden and quick curiosity, turning his head until he saw me standing to his right.

"Oh, hello," he said simply. "You knocked?"

"I…what?" I stuttered.

"At least I think it was you," he continued. "Seeing as there's no one else around."

"I…I didn't knock. Or I didn't mean to at least."

"You didn't mean to knock?"

"I mean I did, but- ah, sorry," I blushed and ran my fingers through my hair. "I can't really think clearly right now."

"That's alright. Neither can I. In fact I almost never can."

I narrowed my eyes and tried to gather my thoughts. What were my questions again? Something about the box, and the light…

"Are you a policeman?" I asked. Not exactly what I meant to say, but it was close enough.

"Not really," he shrugged. "More of a doctor."

"Then why does your box say 'police'?"

He stepped out of the box completely now, leaving the door open just a smidge behind him. He wasn't very intimidating, especially not wearing those converse.

"You're dressed nicely," he observed. "What for?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could say anything, he held his hand up to stop me.

"Wait, let me guess." He took a step back, his right hand rubbing his chin, deep in thought. "Well, definitely a party. At your age, you should be out later than this though, so you left early. And without any companions around. So you're here, and they are still where you left them. Let's see; tripping over a few words, swaying back and forth slightly, appearing a bit tired…you were at a bar. And you left before you had much to drink, what for?"

"Look," I interrupted. "I was walking home a few moments ago. I passed this alley, and it was empty. Suddenly a blue light starts flashing and there's this loud humming noise, and here you are now. I know I'm not drunk enough to imagine any if that, so where did you come from?"

He raised his eyebrows and smirked. "What's your name?"

I hesitated. "Olivia."

"Olivia, great to meet you. I'm John Smith."

"John Smith, huh?" I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Common name. Too common. I don't believe you."

"Well," he leaned against the box, gazing up at the sky. "You can call me 'The Doctor' then if you like."

"Doctor Smith?"

"Just 'The Doctor.'"

"People call you The Doctor? Why?"

He shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"I…I guess not," I shoved my hands in my coat pockets. "So this light then…"

The Doctor smirked again, not saying anything.

"…What?"

"You really want to know?" He replied, his voice lowered slightly. The sudden change in his attitude caught me off guard. Not knowing how to respond, I just nodded.

The Doctor's grin widened. He nodded his head in the direction of the crack, where a bright yellow light illuminated from the inside. "Go on then. Open the door."

"Open the door to this?" I asked, my suspicion rising. "It's just a box. What does that have to do with the light?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised," he replied. "Not everything is as it appears to be."

I glanced back and forth, from him to the handle. The box was relatively small. To anyone passing by, they wouldn't give it a second thought. So what could he possibly be hiding in there?

I wrapped my hand around the door handle and pushed it open.

The first thing I noticed was the metal grating, which exposed tons of wires and other complicated looking things underneath. All around me was the soft, steady hum of electricity. My eyes wandered up the short staircase directly in front of me. A large machine stood in the center of the platform, covered in so many buttons and levers that I couldn't possibly imagine that there was a separate function for every single one of them. In the center of the machine was a massive tube, extending almost toward the ceiling (which was considerably high). The lights were bright and yellow, all over the walls, and contained more doorways and rooms and hallways…it was _enormous_.

I gasped and stumbled back outside. The Doctor was still leaning against the box, staring at me with an amused expression on his face. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I looked the box up and down, from left to right. It was about eight or nine feet tall, much shorter than the ceiling I had seen inside. That much space could not in any shape or form have possibly fit inside that box; I mean, for the love of god, there were doors and hallways that lead to other rooms…it was bigger than my entire flat!

I looked back at The Doctor, shaking my head. "No way…" I rushed back inside the box, and this time he followed, closing the door behind him. I spun around, taking in every sight and sound that I could while he watched with fascination.

"This is…" I breathed. "Impossible! It's…it's…"

"It's what?" The Doctor grinned.

"It's…huge! Bigger in here than it is out there!"

"There it is, my favorite part!" He climbed the stairs to the machine in the middle. I followed closely behind him.

"What is this? How is this even possible?"

"This? This is called the TARDIS. It travels through time and space to any planet, star, any point in history you could ever think of, past or future. Where we are right now, this is the console room. And as for how this is possible, well there's a lot of information that I could go on about, what with the history and technicalities, machinery, blah blah blah boring, boring, boring, so-!" He pulled a lever down and the machine lit up. "Fancy a trip?"

"A…what?"

"A trip in the TARDIS. Pick any time you want and we'll be there instantly. Well, I say instantly, there's the whole thing with the wibbly wobbly, timey wimey…stuff."

"A trip," I repeated. "With you."

"Just one, then you'd be back home. It'd be like you never even left."

I paused. I was so overwhelmed with the amount of things that had happened just now that I had no idea how to respond. This man, this madman…who was he really? And all of this…it was the sort of thing that I would fall asleep thinking about as a child; a magic box that you could use to run away from everything you'd ever known and end up somewhere completely different.

"I can't," I whispered, more to myself than him.

"Who told you you can't?" He asked simply.

"Well…no one, but…I mean, you're…I don't even know you. And what you're saying right now, time travel and going through space…it's dangerous isn't it? I, or you, one of us could-"

"Could get hurt? Well, sure. Then again, you could have gotten hurt after drinking at the bar. Could have gotten mugged walking home, or maybe tripped on the pavement and gotten a scratch on your knee. There are loads of things that could hurt you, and there's a lot to be scared of. But I know that some part of you wants to come. Do you know how I know?"

"How?"

"Because you looked down that alley, even when it was dark and you were alone. You had no idea what could possibly be there. Anyone else might have just glanced over there shoulder and kept walking. You didn't even run away when you saw what was in here, you came back in; I didn't tell you to do that, you did it on your own. But I suppose if you really don't want to, you don't have to come."

"…Why me?"

He smiled gently. "Because I can see that you need it."

I sighed quietly and turned away from him, looking all around the TARDIS again, from the front door, so plain and normal among everything else, back to the console. I thought over everything he had said, his offer, the possibilities he spoke of. Every moment that ever existed…

"Any time I want?" I finally asked.

"Wherever you like."

"And I can be back by tomorrow?"

"It's a time machine, I can get you back to five minutes ago if you want."

I couldn't help but laugh. "I've gone insane, haven't I?"

"Well if you have, there's no reason not to see what it's like."

I thought for a moment. Of everything that's happened in the world, what did I want to see? _Who _did I want to see? And suddenly, the answer came to mind. I smiled and turned back to The Doctor. "Can we see The Beatles? You know, the band?"

The Doctor grinned and darted to the other side of the console, pressing buttons along the way. "Oh, great choice! London, 1965, what a year! Except-" he stopped what he was doing and peered around the tube to look at me- "you're going to want to change your shoes later on."

"What's wrong with them?" I asked, looking down at my high heels.

"Nothing wrong with them, but there's always the chance that we'll have to do some running during this trip."

Before I could ask what he meant, The Doctor pulled down one last lever, and the TARDIS let out the same humming as it did not long before. It shook violently; small sparks of electricity fell like rain from the stray wires draping from the ceiling. I couldn't stop myself from losing my balance and fell onto my rear. I quickly gripped the rail next to me and shut my eyes; if the alcohol didn't make me sick tonight, surely this would. Just when I was beginning to wonder if I had made a mistake in agreeing to go, the TARDIS stopped shaking. I hesitated before slowly opening my eyes.

Everything looked exactly the same, as if nothing happened. The Doctor stood over me, his hand outstretched. I smiled and took it, standing up a little shakily.

"Here we are," he said proudly. I followed as he turned on his heel down the staircase and to the door. He placed his hand around the handle, pulled the door open, and said, "Welcome to 1965."


End file.
